http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/story/2008/10/09/green-seals.html
Greens' anti-sealing stance doesn't apply to Inuit: Ittinuar
Last Updated: Friday, October 10, 2008
CBC News
Peter Ittinuar, seen at an all-candidates forum in Iqaluit on Sept. 25, said the Green party would push for a system that certifies seal products from Inuit harvesters across northern Canada. (CBC) The Green Party's candidate in Nunavut says his party's position against Canada's sealing industry does not include Inuit sealers, adding that his party would create a certification program for Inuit-harvested seal products.
Peter Ittinuar said such certification would exempt Inuit seal products from international bans on Canadian seal exports.
"The world still loves Inuit," he told CBC News in an interview. "If we isolate ourselves as a unique culture and from a unique place, I think their prejudices and discriminations on things like seal products will go by the wayside."
Ittinuar, a former NDP and Liberal MP in the 1980s, said he and national Green leader Elizabeth May agreed that the party would support seal hunting by Inuit, even though the party opposes the sealing industry on Canada's East Coast.
"I said, 'You know what? The Inuit have got to detach themselves from that," he said of the East Coast seal hunt.
May proposed that the party amend its position to "where we push for a certification program that any seal products coming out of Nunavut will be certified," he said.
He added that the proposed certification would also include Inuit in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, the Nunatsiavut of Labrador and the Inuvialuit of the western Arctic.
Ittinuar said other countries' bans on seal product would not necessarily kill the industry for Inuit, as old markets could be re-opened and new ones could be discovered.
"And I think we can educate the public and the world about the humane … way that things are harvested up here and be proactive about marketing our products," he said.
While the Green Party will keep opposing the seal hunt on the east coast, Ittinuar said that if he's elected, he would still give Inuit a voice on the issue in Parliament.
The first Inuk to be elected to Parliament, Ittinuar was elected in 1979 as the NDP MP for what was then called the Nunatsiaq riding in the eastern Arctic. He moved to the Liberals in 1982, then made an unsuccessful run as an Independent candidate in the 1984 federal election.